1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus and a document processing method having a so-called preview function, or the like, for displaying a printing image to allow the user to recognize the printing image before print processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a print system using a computer with Windows (registered trademark) of Microsoft Corporation installed as an operating system (OS), print data generated by an application program (application), and the like, is stored in a spool file in an OS-standard data format. The OS invokes a printer driver to print the print data. The printer driver reads the print data stored in the spool file, an image generation processing unit creates a printing image, and a printer further converts the data into a print command that can be interpreted. The print command is transmitted to the printer, and the printer interprets the print command and forms an image on a recording medium to execute print processing.
In the printer driver, a print preview function is realized in which print data and print settings are analyzed before the print command is transmitted to the printer to create display data indicating the print result, and the data is displayed in advance. The preview function is provided as a module of the printer driver. A function is also included in which the preview function outputs the content drawn by a rendering module of the printer driver or a drawing module of the OS on the display unit, the content serving as a print preview (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-167721 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-102618). The print preview function also realizes a function of displaying the print settings and making a change as necessary (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-011847).
Meanwhile, a print system different from the conventional print system has been emerged in recent years. In the new print system (will be called “XPS print system”), not a conventional EMF format (Enhanced Meta File), but an XPS format (XML Paper Specification) is used as a data format stored in the spool file. The XPS is an open-standard electronic document format developed by Microsoft Corporation.
To facilitate the user to recognize the extent of the impact of changes when the print settings are changed in the print preview, a method is used in some cases in which the target of the print setting change is limited to a job in which all pages in the job have the same print settings, and the change is reflected on the entire job. In that case, whether all pages in the job have the same print settings needs to be determined. In the XPS print system, a print ticket (PrintTicket or PT) that is XML data describing the print settings can be prepared for a part of the job such as a page. Therefore, the print tickets need to be compared to determine whether the print settings are the same in the pages of the document data in XPS format.
However, when the items described in the print tickets are individually compared, a large process load may be imposed depending on the number of pages or the number of items described in the print tickets. Furthermore, to reflect changes on the print tickets after the print settings are changed, the print tickets need to be updated to reflect the changes on all pages.